Gérard Lebovici

Who was Gérard Lebovici?

Gérard Lebovici was a French film producer, editor and impresario.

His mother was executed in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. While on the verge of embarking on a promising stage career at twenty years of age, Lebovici's father died, leaving him orphaned.

Out of the necessity to ensure a source of income for himself more secure than acting, he followed his father into a menial occupation. But passion for show-business caught up with him and in 1960, he founded a management agency with Michele Meritz through which he represented the interests of Jean-Pierre Cassel. Subsequently during the 1960s, he rapidly rose to prominence in show business by dint of his distinguished business acumen and an intuitive understanding of the film industry.

In 1965, he bought a management agency from Andre Bernheim which included among its clients the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. He gradually created an empire in the cinema industry which lasted until 1972, with his creation of Artmédia, the first pan-European agency managing a combination of writers, directors and actors. Clients included Bertrand de Labbey, Jean-Louis Livi and Serge Rousseau.